2024-07-19 18:00:18
(ED) The President of the CCJ Senate, Davi Alcolumbre, and the leader of the government in the House, Jaques Wagner | Edilson Rodrigues / Senado Agency
Originally published on the Media Ninja website, on 7/19/2024
Last week, the Constitution and Justice Committee (CCJ) of the Senate approved PEC 48/2023, which proposes to amend Article 231 of the Constitution to limit the right to circumscribe lands to indigenous communities on the date of its announcement, the October. 5, 1988. With the so-called “time frame”, the right to land would be taken away from all groups that were deported or forcibly relocated, before or during the dictatorship.
The president of the CCJ, Senator Davi Alcolumbre (União-AP), the candidate for the president of the Senate, led the PEC to come closer to the far right bench, but he accepted the proposal of the head of the government, Senator Jaques Wagner (PT- BA), await the results of the “reconciliation” process regarding indigenous territorial rights, promoted by the STF, through Minister Gilmar Mendes, rapporteur of a package of legal actions on Law 14701/23, enacted by the Congress to the restrict those rights.
The PEC intends to pressure the STF to review a previous decision, which deemed the establishment of the “time frame” unconstitutional. However, formally, the PEC indicates that it is tacitly recognized that this landmark is not included in the Constitution, which contradicts the previous position of the Congress to consider it as constitutional.
Inconsistencies
In the discussion at the CCJ, the first signatory of the PEC, Senator Dr. Hiran (PP-RR), to be approved immediately as a matter of national sovereignty, citing the demarcation of Yanomami Native Land in a continuous area equal to national sovereignty. Portuguese expansion. However, the situation has nothing to do with this time frame, as the Yanomami have always lived in this territory.
The PEC rapporteur, senator Espiridião Amin (PP-SC), tried to minimize the contradiction by arguing that the word in the constitutional sentence “traditionally occupied lands” is in the present tense, which would exclude from the territorial rights of indigenous peoples who were expelled or transferred to the strength of their lands. The Constitution does not provide for indigenous people to have no land, but neither the reporter, nor the PEC itself, said anything about it.
The only line of coherence among the defenders of the PEC is the desire to modernize the colonial expropriation of native lands, which goes so far as to endanger the other powers and the Constitution itself. They show the inconsistency of the STF, which would have proven the “time frame” thesis in the judgment on the delimitation of the Indigenous Land Raposa Serra do Sol (RR). But they do not recognize their own inconsistency in affecting rights that have been recognized for indigenous people by congressmen in the National Assembly.
(ED) Author and reporter of PEC 48, respectively, Dr. Hiran and Esperidião Amin | Geraldo Magela / Senado Agency Ambiguity
While proposing that the vote on the PEC be postponed in the CCJ, Wagner indicated that the president of the Senate, Rodrigo Pacheco (PSD-MG), will nominate him among the three representatives from the Senate who will be part of the group that Gilmar called to him. Mendes to promote compromise. He said he is willing to “stand up to fight, on both sides”, indicating that he will support mediation positions, which are not necessarily favorable to the indigenous people. His government, in Bahia, did not promote effective solutions to conflicts between farmers and the indigenous people of Pataxó.
Ambiguity was the hallmark of this process. When he was appointed as the rapporteur of the acts at the STF, Mendes said that he saw some unconstitutionality in the law approved by the Congress, but he did not suspend its validity, not even the article that deals with the “time frame ”, which has already been defined as an unconstitutional item i. previous judgment. Other ministers seem inclined to make concessions to interests other than the delimitation of indigenous lands, hoping that the demands and pressure on the court will be reduced.
The ambiguity also affects some federal government ministries. The Minister of Agriculture, Carlos Fávaro (PSD-MT), who is also a senator, took a leave of absence from his post to assume his parliamentary role and voted in favor of the “time frame”, returning to the Ministry afterwards. Until the STF decides, the Ministry of Justice does not want to issue ordinances with the boundaries of the areas to be demarcated and the Civil House does not want to pass approval, through a presidential decree, on areas that are already demarcated.
The powers of the Republic do not understand that due to their own inability to carry out the demarcation of these lands the reason for the intensification of local conflicts and institutional pressures. Congress spent 38 years without governing the Constitution and then producing a law against it. The Judges, who ought to promote Justice, suspend limitations and make their usual delay. The Executive postpones decisions and does not create appropriate instruments to resolve pending issues related to the final stage of the limitation process.
The compromise promoted by the CTC should take place between the powers, to decisively address the difficulties they face in implementing the constitutional mandate to delimit native lands. It is clear that the indigenous peoples are not to blame for the pending borders and the persistence of conflicts. Therefore, the proposed compromise could not involve restrictions on their rights.
Vice President of the Federation Célia Xakriabá (PSOL-MG) protests at the session of the CCJ, during a speech given by the senator Márcio Bittar (União-AC) | Reproduction of TV Senado
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